30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 10

            I decided to do the 30 day movie challenge as a blog series as it ties into my blog activities rather easily and I am once again not blogging my usual series with regularity in spite of saying that I would.

            Today is "A Movie that has my favorite Actor".  As most of my favorite actors will be covered to various stripe along with my favorite actresses (in fact that is tomorrow) I feel the this choice of actor may come as a surprise.  The movie is "Shutter Island" and the actor is Leonardo DiCaprio.

He seems surprised.

            Strictly speaking "Shutter Island" is a very well done, albeit predictable movie that follows the path of a Federal Agent investigating a missing person on a prison island.  His own sanity and past demons keep coming back at him until ultimately it is revealed that... Well, it is a good movie, so if you haven't seen it watch it, and if you have seen it, watch it again knowing concretely what the ending is, and you will see very subtle performances through out the movie leaving a trail of not just hints, but something that didn't really register at the time suddenly crystallizing, it really holds up to multiple viewings and has a good look that doesn't deaden the senses (fuck you "Avatar").

            Now, I'll freely admit that "Shutter Island" wasn't the best movie of 2010, it wasn't even the best movie that DiCaprio was in that year ("Inception" and I'll get to it later on in this series), but it had his best performance.  And what was really weird is how easy the two movie's performances are to lay next to each other for comparison.  Both are highly psychological and the biggest difference between the characters is that... well, that would be telling, but the ending of each movie mirrors the other, so I guess I'm saying watch both to deepen your appreciation for each.

Don't worry creepy lady, no spoilers here.

            Now here the high endorsement I am going to give to Leo in "Shutter Island", at the end, I felt like crying for the guy.  I had become lost in the narrative and I actually said to myself, "Leo, I'm so sorry."  It hit me, it made an impact, it was really meaningful and I really don't think that I can give higher praise than that.

And the Hulk is in it.

            Now my opinion isn't based on just these two movies, any actor can have a good or bad year, just look at Josh Brolin, I didn't see "Jonah Hex", but then neither did anyone else, and yet he had a small and solid role in "True Grit", so odd year for him.  No, see, DiCaprio started to get in my good graces with "Catch me if you Can" were he held his ground against Tom Hanks, who I consider to be his generation's Jimmy Stewart and an acting icon few can match, if I were writing this blog 10 years ago he would be my guy, but neither "The Terminal" nor "The Da Vinci Code" rang my bell, and I can't remember the last thing he did that had solid impact with me.  Where as Leo has done "Blood Diamond", "The Departed" (My movie of the Decade), and last year was "Shutter" and "Inception".  That is freaking awesome, and so he wins.

Oscar Run!  Hit the SLOW MO!

            And no, I have never watched the entirety of "Titanic", just the first half.  You know, the boring half with boobs and not hundreds of people drowning/freezing.

Don't get me wrong, they were great boobs...